Jerry2264439

This course used to be the place that every westsider of Cincinnati wanted to play. Three 9 hole courses, so if you were playing 18, you would even get to be surprised on which course you’d be on.

In years past, Neumann was always the go-to golf course of all the CRC courses. So much so, the other courses of the CRC relied upon Neumann to keep their course up and running. What the CRC is wasting money on now, I’m not sure, but it definitely isn’t going towards their golf courses.

Neumann hacked down trees, bushes, fences, shrubs, and other foliage, but chose to ignore their greens, tee boxes, fairways, and roughs, as well as cart paths, benches, water coolers, and basically any amenity a golf course may offer.

The rough featured patches of bare mud, and marshy low spots you could sink a Volvo in. Fairways were so long, it seemed like the ball was sitting on shag carpeting. The greens were pocked and long, and tee boxes were bare and overgrown at the same time. The cart paths may as well be blacktop millings, because there isn’t much path left these days.

Now I understand it’s February, and some of those things courses have to deal with early on, but it won’t change come summertime. Even my wife, who has been on two golf courses in her life, commented about how poorly looking the course was.

And to top it off, it cost me $26 (booked on GolfNow) just to play 9 holes, and it would have been close to $35 to play a full 18. I played Neumann last summer too, and they charged me over $50 to play at 2pm during the week. Awful.

I’m hoping Neumann can right the ship, get more money from the CRC, maybe even get new, more experienced greenskeepers, and turn the course around, but seeing the recent trajectory, I wouldn’t be surprised in Neumann turned into a subdivision before 2030.

Obviously, fall is going to be different conditions than spring and summer months, but I’ve played this course about 20 times in my life, and never has the course been in decent shape. No grass on tee boxes, bunkers are like concrete, cart paths are falling apart, and muddy ground all over the course, even if it hasn’t rained for a week, just to name a few. I paid $20 for 18 holes in the fall but in the summertime, prices can go up to over $40, almost $50, with people showing up in jeans and cutoff shirts. Just not a good enough course for the price they ask.

I’ll set the scene. Late October, hours before rain was going to hit, and I just wanted to get a quick round in after work. Sugar Ridge is only 15 minutes from my house, so that was my choice. There was no one on the course, and I play pretty quickly anyways, but I was able to play the full 18 in 2:15. That was about the only positive.

The negatives? 1. The greens were very long. 2. The teeboxes were overgrown and full of divots. 3. The fairways were awful mainly because they were burnt out, but just about every fairway had an area that was under repair. 4. The course was soaking wet, but it hadn’t rained in almost a week. 5. The cart I had was struggling to make it up some of the hills on the course. And 6. There were more potholes on the cart path than I care to count.

It’s a shame too because the course could be super nice, and I understand that it’s late October, but it was brutal this time.